The Rangers announced that they have exercised their club option over manager Jeff Banister for the 2019 season. He was already under contract for next season.
Banister originally signed in advance of the 2015 season. He had agreed to a deal last winter in which the club picked up an original 2018 option and added a new option for the following season. This time around, it seems, no new option year was tacked on at the end. Nonetheless, he’ll head into the 2018 campaign with more job security as he looks to get the Rangers back to the postseason after coming up short in a 78-84 season in 2017 — the first losing season in his three-year tenure in Arlington.
Overall, Banister’s Rangers have performed well since he took the helm three years ago. The 53-year-old Banister helped Texas to an 88-74 record in his first season as a Major League manager, winning 2015 American League Manager of the Year honors in the process. The 2016 Rangers took another step forward with a 95-67 mark, capturing their second AL West crown in as many years under Banister. All told, Texas is 261-225 under his watch.
While the majority of Banister’s coaching staff will remain intact, the Rangers did shuffle up the staff a bit; bullpen coach Brad Holman will not have his 2018 club option exercised and won’t return to the organization next season. He’ll be replaced by Rangers first base coach Hector Ortiz, who will serve as both bullpen coach and catching instructor next season. Texas, it seems, will be on the lookout for a new first base coach to join Banister’s staff in the coming weeks, as no replacement for Ortiz was announced. The Rangers did announce that pitching coach Doug Brocail, third base coach Tony Beasley, bench coach Steve Buechele, hitting coach Anthony Iapoce and assistant hitting coach Justin Mashore will all return to the team in 2018.
Between lineup construction and pitching usage, not a huge fan of this. He may be excellent with the players between out 27 and pitch 1, but, in my opinion, has many questionable in-game and pre-game calls at best… Just a fan’s opinion though…
He gave Dyson and Bush too many opportunities at closer after the were blowing saves on the daily… Cost the team at least 10 wins… Pitching and hitting coaches are not legit either…
That’s true yet at the same time, they should’ve come into the game and done their job. He trusted them and you can’t really blame him. He tried his best with what he was given. He wouldn’t have been in those situations if they had a competent pitching coach.
They need to rebuild.
No, they don’t.
Why not? They don’t look to have that great of a roster and most of their good players are old. Houston looks like they’re going to run away with that division for years to come and LA is also on the rise. They’ll be stuck in mediocrity for many years if they don’t imo
Um, no?
They need a new pitching coach and hitting coach badly
Yep
The Rangers are in mediocre purgatory. They have a couple aging players who are eating payroll (Choo & Fielder). They have only 2 starters for 2018 and their pen is a mess. I’m on the fence about Banister and not sure if he is he right skipper for the team. Players were struggling and traded. When they landed with a new team, they went back to old form. Dyson was one and Lucroy was another. Then you look at how he has handled Profar and the drop off of Odor. Lots of signs that something is amiss.